Summary of Previous Chapters 17 I didn’t like to think about why I’d waited decades to return to Barrington. My mother abused prescription drugs and alcohol and Dad had a hard time keeping a job—could high school have been anything I was eager to revisit? Leaving from the airport in San Francisco, I scribbled down […]
The Sureness of Horses, Chapters 17, 18, and 19 Read More »
Trees along the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountains face a foe that is killing them by the millions and yet stands only millimeters tall. Bark beetles have affected tens of millions of acres of forest and show no sign of slowing down. Past outbreaks from these beetles have been brief and controlled by
Invasion of the Bark Beetle Read More »
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the unsung beetle. We share the planet with over 400,000 species of beetles. (For perspective, there are only 50,000 animals with backbones: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined.) In fact, according to Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell, beetles make up “almost 25% of all known life-forms.” How many kinds
Consider the Beetle Read More »
The Dalai Lama is one of those lucky few whose thoughts are as clear as a mountain stream yet as deep as the ocean. Many of his writings respond to humanity’s plenitude of self-imposed miseries with a complement of practical insights that still serve as a refreshing alternative to some damaging cultural expectations. Although a
The Dalai Lama on Religion and Spirituality Read More »
Identity is a vessel to fill, we the chalice makers and liquid artisans, the inventors, hosts, and cupbearers, serving ourselves and our guests the flavor and finish of our secret recipes in spacious galleries of the mind, a white orchid petal floating on a sanguine sea of blood red wine.
It took years to dislodge the hate searing my brain and every limb, like a tree burning in a firestorm. I’m charred but still standing, waiting for the rains of spring.